Alice all year round

Missed Alice's Day? Don't despair - Alice's Day will be back next year in 2012, on July 7 and 8, when we shall be celebrating the 150th anniversary of the first telling of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.  We have some wonderful events up our sleeve - and some very special exhibitions.

In the meantime, Oxford is still home to a number of curious things all year round. Visit these exciting locations across the City and create your very own Wonderland experience.  From Alice-themed exhibitions and intriguing historic buildings to Wonderland inspired walks and river cruises there's plenty to occupy all ages, from nine to 90.

Manuscripts and first editions

Lewis Carroll was a friend of Thomas Combe, director of Oxford University Press. The Press still holds the account ledger for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, indicating that in July 1865 Carroll paid them almost £150 to print 2000 copies of his new book. About 50 copies were bound up immediately for Carroll to give to his friends and 23 of these have survived. They are among the rarest “first editions” in the world.

The illustrator, John Tenniel, was not happy with the printing of the first edition and all the remaining copies from an initial print run of 2000 copies were withdrawn from sale.  A new edition was printed in London, and was ready in November 1865, but dated 1866 on the title page.

Later, the American publishers Appleton & Co. purchased the remaining sheets of the suppressed “first edition.” They were bound in Oxford with a new title-page, and shipped to New York.

In 1928, Alice Liddell, the real Alice, sold the manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground (as it was first called) at Sotheby's.  It was bought by an American book dealer who immediately sold it to the rich industrialist, Eldridge Johnson.  Soon afterwards, Johnson arranged to have a very accurate facsimile made of the manuscript.  Only 50 copies were bound and all were given as gifts to Johson's friends.  The original copy returned to England in 1948 when a group of American benefactors presented it to the British Library in appreciaition of the British people's role in the Second World War.

Alice's Shop

Visit this treasure trove of Alice memorabilia and gifts housed within the historic building which was once the shop where Alice Liddell, the real Alice, bought her barley sweets 140 years ago.  The building and its owner also served as the inspiration behind the Old Sheep Shop in Alice Through the Looking Glass.  Tenniel, who illustrated the book, drew a mirror image of a little grocery shop in St Aldates; it is now Alice's Shop. 

FREE ENTRY. Open every day in July and August from 9.30am to 6.30pm, and 10.30am to 5.30pm thereafter.

The Museum of Oxford

Some of the personal belongings of Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell are on display here.  Among their collection are two watches: one owned by Lewis Carroll and one by Alice Liddell after she married and became Mrs Hargreaves.  Lewis Carroll gave each of his nephews and nieces a watch, once they reached an age when they could appreciate the gift, so that they would regard him as "their watchful uncle."      

The Museum's Curiouser and Curiouser exhibition will run until 3rd September 2011.  The exhibition features the work of local artists, schoolchildren, designers and illustrators who have all been inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

FREE ENTRY. Open Monday to Saturday from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm.

Create Mad Hatter hats and Red Queen crowns at drop-in craft workshops every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between 1.30 pm and 4.00 pm throughout the school holidays.  £1.50 entry for craft activities.

Follow the Wonderland inspired trail round the Museum and discover who Alice met when she fell down the rabbit hole.  £1.00 per person including a souvenir prize.  Runs until 3rd Sepetmber 2011.

The Oxford Dodo at The Museum of Natural History  

Many of the charcters in Alice are based on real people.  Carroll adopted the charcter of the Dodo.  He gave a copy of Alice to his friend, Robinsion Duckworth, who came on the 4 July boat-picnic.  In it he wrote "The Duck, from the Dodo."  Immortalised in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, this most curious of creatures is a permenant exhibition at Oxford University's Museum of Natural History.  The mummified head and foot on display are the most complete remains of any single dodo and are one of the Museums greatest treasures, Carroll almost certainly took the three sisters to see these remains.  Alongside them is the famous Jan Savery depiction of the dodo in Europe in 1651.  FREE ENTRY. Open 10.00 am to 5.00 pm every day.

University of Oxford Museum of the History of Science

Dodgson was an excellent photographer at a time when few people had cameras.  His photographic chemical box, with his initials "C.L.D." on the lid, is on display in this museum.  His old glass-plate camera has not survived.  FREE ENTRY. Open Tuesday to Friday 12.00 noon to 5.00 pm.  Saturday 10.00 am to 5.00 pm.  Sunday 2.00 pm to 5.00 pm.

Alice Walking Tour

Explore Oxford as it was known to the young Alice Liddell, the real Alice, and Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) when he studied and wrote in the city.

Walks run from February to November and cost £3.50 per adult and £1.50 per child. Contact The Oxford Tourist Information Centre 01865 252200.

Alice in Waterland walk

Arrange a guided tour with Mark Davies, local historian and and author of Alice in Waterland: Lewis Carroll and the River Thames in Oxford.  Content and route can be tailor-made for participants and can vary in length and size.  More info and booking: Mark Davies 01865 798254 or towpathpress@btopenworld.com.

Mapping Wonderland

Join UnderConstruction Theatre Company on a promenade tour with a difference!  Watch as they bring Oxford as Wonderland to life with quirky and eccentric characters from history who may have inspired Lewis Carroll when he wrote the Alice tales. Performances run throughout July.

Tickets: £10.00 per person, £8.00 concessions or £30.00 for a family ticket.  Performances run throughout July. More info and booking

Christ Church

Step inside one of Oxford's grandest colleges and the original Wonderland.  Christ Church was the home of maths professor Charles Dodgson and Alice Liddell.

In February 1855, Dodgson was made sub-librarian at Christ Church. His job was to help organise the books in the library and deal with loans of books to undergraduates. From his office window he could see the Deanery garden and it is from here that he probably first glimpsed the Liddell sisters playing in the garden below.

The college itself inspired much of the tale's extraordinary scenery, including a dining hall door that became a very famous rabbit hole!  A high window shows portraits of Alice and creatures from the book, and brass ‘firedogs’ guarding the fire have long necks like that of Alice in the story. The white rabbit character is supposedly based upon the dean, Alice’s father.  To arrange a Behind the Scenes tour contact the head custodian: 01865 576492 or email.

Exhibition: Lewis Carroll in Stories and Pictures

See Lewis Carroll, or Charles Dodgson as a mathematician and logician, as a photographer, poet and storyteller.  The exhibition includes samples of his mathematical workings, photographs of Dodgson and the Liddell children and some of this draft sketches for Alice's Adventures Underground, the handwritten manuscript that later became Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

The collection is on display in the Christ Church Upper Library.  Open Monday to Froday 9.00 am to 5.00 pm and Saturday 12.00 noon to 1.00 pm.  

For more information visit the Christ Church Picture Gallery website.

The Bodleian Library 

The Bodleian holds many editions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, including one of the very rare “first editions” of the 1865 Alice. This copy belonged to “M. Combe” (probably Martha Combe, wife of Thomas Combe, director of the Press). It was presented to the Bodleian Library in 1986 by the author Roger Lancelyn Green.

Snark Hunt Geocache

Take part in this high-tech hide and sneak and hunt for the Snark using a GPS tracking device and a set of coordinates, available from our website.  The trail will lead you to a number of sites and venues all over Oxford that have a connection with Lewis Carroll and Alice in Wonderland.  If you complete the trail successfully sign the logbook in the cache.  And if you come across a small object inside, please replace with another.

For more information on the game or to share your own experiences visit the official Geocache website.    

With thanks to Edward Wakeling (Lewis Carroll Society) and Martin Maw (Oxford University Press) for their help in compiling this information.